Sitesell 5 Pillar Program changes how cookies operate

September 30, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting 

I’ve been thinking about this for almost two weeks, before I decided to write about it — and I’m still not exactly sure what I’m going to say here.

In the private 5 Pillar Forums, Ken Evoy, Founder of Sitesell, announced on September 18, 2011: 5 Pillar Program Switches To First-Exposure Cookie.

You must be a Sitesell affiliate to gain access to those forums.

So, how is this different, and why is it important?

The announcement about the change is rather lengthy, as are the reasons for making the change.

I’m going to summarize parts of that announcement here, but — for the full story, including background information — you’ll need to read what Ken wrote and then all the questions and answers that followed.

To give just a little background, the 5 Pillar Program was founded when Sitesell had one product: Make Your Site Sell!

(You can go to that site and read about it, and download it for free, if you’re interested. I keep a copy of this book on the desktop of my work computer and still refer to it on a regular basis.)

That was when I joined Sitesell’s affiliate program — in the late 1990s. I bought, studied, and implemented what I learned, and then I told more people about it. Even now, nine years after the last revision, I still use and recommend that book.

Here’s some of what Ken said about that…

Before SBI! existed, 5 Pillar Affiliates were all “Internet Marketers” (“IMers”). They reached people who were looking for information about SEO, or affiliate marketing, and so forth.

They promoted “Make Your Site SELL!” to them, followed by each book in a a growing range of Make Your __________ Sell!” books. Those were the pre-SBI! days.

Today, half of all SBI! owners become 5 Pillar Affiliates. They speak of SBI! with first-hand experience and with passion. Their sales cycle is different.

They are “regular” people who reach more “regular” people, folks who are specifically looking for information about Anguilla or turtle-breeding (or whatever). IMers’ audience seeks info about starting a business online or SEO or social marketing strategies, etc.

This shift in sales cycle dynamics happened slowly over time. As SBI! grew, more SBIers reached more “regular” surfers who were NOT seeking information on SEO, for example.

I’m in both categories. One of my SBI sites has nothing to do with Internet Marketing and the other has a few sections where I talk about it (or will, when I get all the pages written). On those sites, I have the “Powered by SBI” footer on most pages, and that’s an affiliate link.

I also actively promote SBI on other sites, including here. (I bet you’ve already noticed that!)

Before September 18, 2011, the 5 Pillar program used a last-visit cookie. When it was mostly IMers promoting the system, it pretty much averaged out. I might have lost a few commissions that should have been mine, and I may have received commissions that should have gone to someone else.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with Sitesell’s management and tracking. It’s just a natural way that affiliate commissions work with any program that uses exclusively first-visit or exclusively last-visit cookies to track commissions.

Sitesell has always had a hybrid system. It basically worked like this…

If you click on a link on Site A, Sitesell sets a cookie on your computer that shows affiliate A as the referrer. That’s a pretty standard first-visit cookie, but it’s also a last visit cookie.

If you then go awhile and click on affiliate links on other sites, each click will generate a new cookie that links to that affiliate (the last one you clicked on).

So, if you spent three months reading about SBI on this blog, but finally decided to purchase after clicking a link on the other site, the owner of that other site would get the commission.

Fair or not?

I think that’s fair. The last visited site that got the click earned the commission.

At the point of sale, things changed. As soon as you purchased Make Your Site Sell!, or, later, SBI, Sitesell wrote a permanent cookie on your computer. If you happened to purchase from one of my links, then you were permanently cookied to me and I would receive residual commissions when you purchased other products or renewed an SBI subscription.

To summarize, the affiliate whose site was last visited (and whose link was clicked) before you purchased earned the commission and was awarded the permanent cookie and a new lifetime customer.

Pretty cool, huh?

Over the years, however, as the number of SBI subscribers grew, the majority of them were not Internet marketers. They were regular people building websites about topics in which regular people are interested — people who may never have considered building an online business.

As time went by, some of these people (who are also affiliates) would spend time telling interested people about SBI and would set a cookie at the time, but, later, when the sale was made, would not receive a commission.

Why not?

Because, more often than not, the last click before purchase would be on an Internet marketer’s site.

Did the IMer deserve the commission? One view is that they did, because they closed the sale. Another view is that they didn’t, because the other person introduced the new subscriber to SBI and may have spent some time discussing it with the new subscriber, who just happened to make the final purchase decision after clicking on the IMer’s site. The “regular” SBI subscriber who did the introductory work did not receive a commission for their effort, and many of them felt it was unfair.

Sitesell could have changed to a first-visit cookie, but that would also be unfair in a different way. IMers could do lots of promotion and set cookies on lots of prospects’ computers, and even if someone else closed the sale months or years later, the original person would get the commission.

That’s not fair either.

(I’m not going to go into the discussion about a lot of the factors that apply due to the rather long sales cycle for SBI conversions. That’s covered in the announcement I linked to at the top of the post.)

So, this month, Sitesell went to a hybrid system that is more complicated, but may prove to be more fair for all affiliates.

That’s one of the things I really like about Sitesell. The people in charge really care about their customers and their affiliates and those who fit into both categories. So, they decided to correct this emerging and ever-more-unfair path to conversion of prospects to customers…

A while back, we realized that the current cookie arrangement, “last exposure gets the commission,” was not fair to SBIers who were 5P affiliates.

When we first chose “last-exposure” instead of “first,” it really did not make much of a difference since all affiliates were IMers. They generated their own traffic, “competed” for that last-exposure. There’s no perfect system, but it all worked out fairly in the end…

Sometimes, you might get the last-exposure just before a purchase. Sometimes, you might lose it to someone else.

In the long run, it all evened out.

But, now that the 5P Program has two different groups, it no longer evens out…

Net marketing professionals reach people who are much closer to purchasing a business-building solution. They are often just a click away from purchasing.

SBIer-affiliates reach folks who do not even know (yet) that they want to start an online business. Some of those seeds start to germinate, of course. Months later, sometimes, years later, they purchase.

First, though, those prospective SBIers search for information related to IM. And that is when they encounter an IMer, one of tens of thousands of 5P affiliate who focus their efforts on some aspect of IM.

As a result, many of these about-to-become-SBIers (originally exposed to SBI! by “regular” SBIers) have their cookies “overwritten” by IM affiliates.

The median time for conversion of “first-time exposure” people is 9 months. They would not otherwise have been interested in building an SBI! business.

Whereas it used to “all even out,” it no longer does since folks interested in Net marketing do not head in the opposite direction (ex., towards SBI! sites about Anguilla — SBI! sites that MIGHT be on the pathway go onto a no-overwrite list).

They considered several alternatives, including splitting the commission between first visit and last visit cookies, but that would have been a nightmare to track, because of the resulting permanent cookies and lifetime customer status that is assigned at the time of purchase.

The solution is rather complex, but is essentially this…

The first time someone clicks on an affiliate link, they receive a cookie, but, instead of being a temporary cookie that will be overwritten by any subsequent clicks on other affiliate links, it results in a fixed cookie, and that cookie will not be overwritten for nine months — approximately the time it takes for most sales conversions from first exposure to the sale.

So, this gives all affiliates a more equal opportunity to get a commission, if the sale occurs within this nine month window.

After nine months, the cookie changes from fixed to temporary and will be overwritten by any other affiliate’s cookie, until the sale is made, like the original system.

There are some other conditions in the new arrangement…

If a visitor with a FIXED cookie clicks on a link of the same affiliate some time later, the FIXED date is extended to 9 months from the date of the NEW exposure.

For example, suppose Affiliate A is a “first exposure.” 90 days later, suppose that the prospective customer clicks on another link BY THE SAME AFFILIATE. The date of expiration of that cookie is now 9 months FROM THAT MOST RECENT EXPOSURE.

However, as usual, once the 9 month period has expired, the next RR URL link that the person clicks will overwrite the previous cookie to the NEW affiliate’s cookie.

You can see that this is a more fair arrangement for the “regular” SBI owner who is an affiliate, since it increases the likelihood that he/she will receive a commission.

It should also be remembered that this also helps the IMer who actively promotes SBI, because their first visit cookie can be extended indefinitely, if subsequent clicks happen during the nine month term of the fixed cookie, or the new nine month term, if it is extended.

After the fixed cookie expires, then the commission is “up for grabs” by whomever generates the final link that results in a sale.

I think this is a rather elegant solution to a problem and I like the fact that Sitesell’s management analyzed the situation and came up with a solution that may very well be more fair to all affiliates.

Most companies would not go to the bother. Most use either a first or a last visit cookie and most have very short time spans for being credited with a sale.

If you are a 5 Pillar Program affiliate, you should read the thread and follow through Ken’s longer and more detailed explanation.

If you would like to become an affiliate, then you can apply for the 5 Pillar Program.

As I’ve stated many times, I am a very satisfied Sitesell customer and affiliate. I use the products and I’m happy to recommend the service and the people behind the service. They are one of the best groups of people with whom I have had the pleasure to be associated.

This is a rather long and complicated post. The main point I wanted to get across is that changes have been made in an attempt to correct what had become an unfair system. I think it will make a difference.

If you are an SBI affiliate, what do you have to do differently?

Nothing. The affiliate management team and programmers did all the work. Your links will continue to work as they always have, except that you may receive more sales commissions.

It’s too early to know for sure how it will work. I’m optimistic.

I’m going to leave the last word to Ken Evoy, the man who founded the company and conceived of SBI. It has changed the lives of thousands of customers — including me.

Act on your dream!

JD


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Sitesell always goes above and beyond

June 28, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 4 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Opinions, Sitesell and Site Build It 

I’m tired of dealing with the whole Amazon.com debacle…

Amazon.com cancels all North Carolina affiliate accounts

In yesterday’s mail, I got something that was a breath of fresh air and reminded me of the difference between a so-so affiliate program (Amazon) and an outstanding affiliate program (Sitesell’s 5 Pillar Program).

You see, companies like Amazon.com go out of their way to reduce our affiliate commissions to the absolute minimum. Their one-day cookie, alone, is almost reason enough to not promote them.

Their strong-arm tactics, like canceling all the affiliates in an entire state has proven to be enough for me to never promote them, again.

So, I was very pleasantly surprised to open a letter from Daniel Kornitzer, the CEO of Sitesell, yesterday.

In it was a short letter that talked about the new monthly renewal option for SBI owners that was introduced in November, 2008.

He explained that affiliates would still receive the standard renewal commission of 20% (based on TVI), except that it would be paid monthly on the monthly renewal amount rather than annually.

However, he went on to say, these amounts have not been paid to affiiates since January 1, 2009.

Then, he did something that made me feel very good. He apologized.

We are VERY sorry for this. We’ve worked like crazy to fix it and it is now fixed.

To me, this shows respect for the affiliates who are helping to build the business.

Then, he went above and beyond and sent me a check for all the monthly renewal commissions I had earned, regardless of my TVI during this period. He actually sent me a check for a bit more than I was actually due.

How’s that for treating your affiliates right?

While Amazon went out of its way to reduce my commissions, Sitesell went out of its way to increase my commissions – even going so far to apologize and pay me more than I was actually due.

That’s the kind of respect and service I have come to expect from anyone associated with Sitesell. Ken Evoy started this company years ago and I have always had lots of respect for him and the way he ran the business when he was both founder and CEO. Daniel Kornitzer is following in Ken’s footsteps now that he is the CEO.

Now, this check isn’t huge, but it is more than I earned from Amazon this year. The nice thing, is that it is in addition to the commission checks I’ve already received from Sitesell this year.

I’ve told you repeatedly that the Sitesell 5 Pillar Program is the best affiliate marketing program on this quaint little planet, and it is actions like this that make me believe that even more.

On this blog, we’ve been debating whether using WordPress or Site Build It! is the best way to build an online business…

Site Build It! or WordPress? Which is Best? Why?

At one point, I would have leaned a bit more towards WordPress, but now, to me, the clear winner is Site Build It!.

That’s why I’ll be introducing a new website this week that will be powered by SBI.

But, it’s not just about the webhosting, although that is very important to me.

It’s the complete set of tools, a time-tested approach, the Action Guide, continual improvements and additions, the lack of having to deal with technical issues and updating the software, the help-and-be-helped members-only forum, and the results I get that put me more firmly than ever in the Site Build It! camp.

They say that when a fish stinks it starts at the head, and this has been used as an analogy for companies getting into trouble because of actions taken by top management.

In the case of Sitesell, however, just the opposite is true. This company shines because of the top-quality management that does everything within their power to help both subscribers and affiliates do well.

I know of no other affiliate marketing program that even comes close to the Sitesell 5 Pillar Program. I urge you to see for yourself.

Act on your dream!

JD

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